I remember when this old-fashioned family comedy came out in 1968 because I saw it from the back of my parents' Rambler station wagon at a suburban drive-in. Ironically, it was released about a month before Robert Kennedy was assassinated, a pertinent fact since he was the Kennedy brother with by far the most children - eleven. The wholesome image of Kennedy as a young family man with a large brood is what much of the country responded to at the time, and this movie echoes those sentiments on a broader, sitcom level. It helps when you have two veterans like Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda play the leading roles as the widowed parents of sizable broods that combine eighteen children. One is a screen icon, the other America's most beloved TV comedienne. In hindsight, it seems predictably cautious for a movie set around the Alameda Naval Base to ignore the Vietnam War entirely, even though Fonda plays a naval officer and his oldest son a draftee.
The plot is based on a true story as recounted in a 1964 memoir by Ball's character Helen North Beardsley. She was a part-time nurse on the base and a recently widowed mother of eight. In typical meet-cute fashion at the grocery store, Helen bumps into naval officer Frank Beardsley, the recently widowed father of ten children. They meet again at the clinic when his daughter needs female attention for her budding young womanhood. Their first date leads to the mutual revelation of the size of their respective families. Frank's best friend and fellow officer Darrel Harrison also knows Helen well and is determined to get them together through a pair of mismatched blind dates. Once Frank and Helen realize they are made for each other, the couple spends the rest of the movie trying to meld their warring families together into one happy unit. It's hardly a spoiler to say that they eventually succeed but not without a lot of trial and tribulation - including another baby on the way.
Truth be told, Ball and Fonda are too old by a decade or so for their roles. However, it doesn't really matter since they are immensely likable here. Even though she is given plenty of Lucy schtick to do between false eyelashes and toxic screwdrivers, Ball lends surprising dimension to Helen when it matters. Van Johnson is in typical wise-guy mode as Darrel, while Tom Bosley shows up as the befuddled family doctor. Among the children, you can recognize Tim Matheson as the eldest and most resentful of the pack and Morgan Brittany as a middle daughter, though the scene stealer is Eric Shea, who would have a memorable turn as the crafty kid in "The Poseidon Adventure" four years later. Reflecting on this film forty years later, I am struck by the pro-life message it seems to encourage, although religious themes are smartly avoided. The whole venture was directed and co-written by journeyman Melville Shavelson. The 2006 DVD only offers the original theatrical trailer as the one extra.
The plot is based on a true story as recounted in a 1964 memoir by Ball's character Helen North Beardsley. She was a part-time nurse on the base and a recently widowed mother of eight. In typical meet-cute fashion at the grocery store, Helen bumps into naval officer Frank Beardsley, the recently widowed father of ten children. They meet again at the clinic when his daughter needs female attention for her budding young womanhood. Their first date leads to the mutual revelation of the size of their respective families. Frank's best friend and fellow officer Darrel Harrison also knows Helen well and is determined to get them together through a pair of mismatched blind dates. Once Frank and Helen realize they are made for each other, the couple spends the rest of the movie trying to meld their warring families together into one happy unit. It's hardly a spoiler to say that they eventually succeed but not without a lot of trial and tribulation - including another baby on the way.
Truth be told, Ball and Fonda are too old by a decade or so for their roles. However, it doesn't really matter since they are immensely likable here. Even though she is given plenty of Lucy schtick to do between false eyelashes and toxic screwdrivers, Ball lends surprising dimension to Helen when it matters. Van Johnson is in typical wise-guy mode as Darrel, while Tom Bosley shows up as the befuddled family doctor. Among the children, you can recognize Tim Matheson as the eldest and most resentful of the pack and Morgan Brittany as a middle daughter, though the scene stealer is Eric Shea, who would have a memorable turn as the crafty kid in "The Poseidon Adventure" four years later. Reflecting on this film forty years later, I am struck by the pro-life message it seems to encourage, although religious themes are smartly avoided. The whole venture was directed and co-written by journeyman Melville Shavelson. The 2006 DVD only offers the original theatrical trailer as the one extra.